


Blood and Snow

by WinterSnufkin



Series: Blood and Snow [1]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: (Sorry Phil lol), Child Neglect, Damn You Dream, Exploring Dysfunctional Family Dynamics, Gen, My SBI includes Tubbo, Platonic Bonding, References Violence and Death because it's the Dream SMP, References to Depression, References to Gaslighting, References to Past Abuse (Emotional), SBI Family Canon but All Adopted Screw You Wilbur lmao, The Canon Lives Are a Thing in This, There might be some plot progression in late chapters not sure yet, This entire story is about Tommy and Techno bonding post-Exile
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:55:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28365762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterSnufkin/pseuds/WinterSnufkin
Summary: When he reaches the front door again, Technoblade is standing there in his full armored, blood-soaked glory, one hand on his sword and the other on his horse’s lead. He’s panting and looks unbelievably angry.Tommy freezes in place but it’s too late.They lock eyes.
Relationships: Somewhat SBI Fam but mostly these two, TommyInnit & Technoblade
Series: Blood and Snow [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2077356
Comments: 32
Kudos: 376





	1. Through the Ice

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Some things to note are:  
> * SBI family is canon in this fic and includes Tubbo but they're all adopted  
> * AE is canon but my timeline is kind of weird and different from the real one  
> * Three Canon Lives is still a thing in this fic, so there will be references to people "dying" and still being around  
> ===  
> Enjoy!

Tommy stumbles through the ice with a strange conviction.

He’s somehow thinking both three steps ahead and not at all. He doesn’t know what he expects to happen when he reaches Techno’s house, and the blizzard’s piercing onslaught softens his memories of his brother in comparison, to times when he was safe and protected…

All thoughts of the horror and pain he associates with Techno are briefly washed away in the numb and unforgiving night, and when he falls to his knees not three feet away from the warm light of the cabin, he forces himself to crawl.

He remembers when the thought of dragging himself forward on his hands and knees was untenable in its lack of dignity, but so much has changed since he was exiled.

There’s no energy to feel embarrassed, tears and snot dribbling down his face, whining as he claws forward through the burning frost and finally manages to wrap an almost unmovable hand around the door knob.

He doesn’t know why it’s unlocked-- doesn’t have the brainpower to question it. The moment it swings shut behind him, he passes out.

=====

He wakes up warm in a way he hasn’t felt in a long time.

He tries to sit up and immediately has a coughing fit that hits him like a seizure.

He distantly wonders if this is how pathetic his final death will be, muscles locking up around his self-sabotaging lungs, but eventually he manages to draw short, painful breaths through the panic, wobbling on his knees over to a bucket of fresh water clearly set up to drink from.

He dunks his whole head in and almost chokes again, but somehow he recovers and drinks deeply, the cool water soothing his aching throat and easing the dehydration headache he hadn’t even noticed in the ever-present haze of fear.

He sits for a moment-- presses his feverish forehead against the metal-- and glances around the room.

It’s difficult for him to focus his vision. He sees a fireplace that’s been burning since he found his way in, but there’s no sign of Techno anywhere.

He crawls over, shoves a few scraps of wood in from the pile to keep it going-- then gets to his feet on trembling legs.

When he first set out towards this place, he expected some sort of violent confrontation. He somehow hadn’t considered the possibility that Techno might not actually be here when he arrived, and now he doesn’t know what to do with himself.

There’s bread over on the corner table. Hunger sets in all at once, a crawling nightmare in his gut that he can never seem to shake these days.

He doesn’t even realize he’s moved across the room until his hand is hovering over it, but something is making him hesitate.

 _It’s okay_ , he tells himself. _He can always get more. It’s not a big deal._

He grinds his teeth so hard he can hear the bones creaking-- tries to remember how it felt to be so confident in taking what he wanted from people and expecting them to forgive him.

Before he was forced to see everything he had as something that could be taken away at any second.

In a fit of anger he tears into the bread with his teeth, not even bothering to cut a slice.

 _He’s already going to be pissed off that I'm here anyway._ He chews furiously, hot tears spilling down his face and jaw clenching with how good it feels to finally eat some real food. _I might as well take advantage of the shit he leaves lying around!_

 _In fact_ \--!

With the bread still in his mouth, he throws open chests until he finds what he’s looking for. He sinks his teeth into the glittering apple and it feels almost like hot, liquid gold is coursing through his veins.

It feels good to be angry and selfish, like he’s no longer a shadow of himself. Without coordination he swings down the ladders, half falling through the house, ignoring everything he passes until he reaches the bottom.

There’s a diamond shovel conveniently propped against the wall like fate has decided to be on his side again.

He grabs it, grins so hard and feral that it bursts stars across his vision--

And he digs.

=====

Techno returns a few hours later.

Tommy knows because he hears the door slam from the secret place he’s carved for himself a few floors down. With a thundering heart, he creeps up the ladder and peers upward, unsure what he’s risking his secrecy to catch a glimpse of.

The sturdy wooden planks above him groan under the weight of Techno’s armored boots and shudder sawdust down onto Tommy’s head, but he doesn’t dare move enough to shake it off.

He hears the man muttering to himself about the nearby village stiffing him on trades, under the impression that their butcher has some kind of grudge against him.

“No,” Techno mumbles, dropping something that clinks onto the table. “Nothing for the Blood God today. The bastard can keep his chicken and choke on it.”

Tommy’s heart drops and a new fear strikes him. He sinks back down into his burrow as quietly as he can.

He remembers how Phil and Wilbur had struggled to keep Techno’s internal battle a secret from him, worried that it might change how he looked at his brother. They were right to be worried, but he would have preferred to find out any other way than walking in on Techno with his sword to Phil’s throat, eyes crazed and tusks bared.

He remembers begging Techno not to hurt him, not to kill the father that they had all finally found, the one who had brought them all together as a family. The bloodlust had slowly faded from Techno’s eyes through his terrified rambling, until he finally pulled away.

He also remembers when Techno shot a firework through Tubbo’s left eye at the festival, some strange and overwhelmed expression on his face.

In his rage and horror, he could never accept how Techno kept pushing the blame for his actions onto peer pressure, but if the voices really were back in full force… the ones that Techno was supposed to have conquered long ago…

Suddenly, all movement above him stops.

A long, silent pause-- then Techno roughly sniffs at the air in a searching way, the sound of a chair scraping as he stands.

Tommy immediately realizes that he hasn’t had a proper bath in months.

With wide eyes, he extinguishes the candle he stole with his fingers and prays that the rug covering the burrow’s entrance is aligned properly.

Techno’s heavy footsteps cross the house with alarming speed and thunder down the ladders, and it takes everything Tommy has not to cry out in sheer panic.

He hears a low snarl, and can practically see in his mind’s eye how Techno is circling his basement snout-first, trying to find the source of the smell.

The first time that their family truly, officially separated was a few years ago. Techno and Phil went out to explore the world together, their adventures sending cascades of overexaggerated stories echoing back to the Dream Country. Eventually, the two parted ways to walk or fly the biomes alone.

Will, Tommy, and Tubbo stayed in Phil’s house for a long time, drifting around from friend to friend but always returning home when night fell.

And now all Tommy can think about as Techno comes to a standstill directly above his head is how _massive_ he had looked when he finally returned to aid Wilbur in the revolution, after years of not seeing him.

Eight feet tall with the shoulder-span of two grown men. The look on Wilbur’s face was equally shocked and triumphant that they had such a beast of a brother on their side, his focus entirely on the war and without much heed to their family reunion.

And though he hates to admit it, Tommy is so thin and weak now that a stiff wind could knock him over, let alone a massive piglin man with a thirst for blood and voices in his head calling for murder.

He’s small and helpless, and he _hates_ it _so much._

For a flashing moment he wonders if things would be better with Dream-- if he made the right decision in running away--

But Dream made him feel small too, in a way that had nothing to do with physical size.

“Tommy was here,” Techno snorts, and the sound of his name makes Tommy stop breathing. He hears wooden chests open and close. “Shitty thief. How did he find this place?…”

Tommy silently gnaws on a golden apple as Techno sorts through his things. The fact that Tommy might still be there apparently doesn’t cross his mind, because he slams the chest shut and starts climbing up the ladder again, muttering as he goes.

“Scrawny little nightmare. When will he learn to hunt for himself? Like I taught him nothing… Maybe he was too young to remember...”

Tommy curls up against a mud wall and has to wait for Techno to go to bed before he manages to relax enough to sleep.

===

Tommy is frankly _very proud_ of how long he lasts before Techno finds him.

He carves out a wider mud hole beneath the cabin, squirreling away more candles and food and even a few things to decorate with ( _gold, gold, gold!_ ).

He sets up the Prime Log and grins, but he can only ring it when Techno is out trading with the village community that he has a hilarious love-hate relationship with.

Listening to Techno pace around above talking to his voices is almost as entertaining as watching a play, especially after months of the pendulum between crippling loneliness and Dream’s weirdly tense hangout sessions.

Throughout his youth, he had been under the impression that the Voices only begged Techno to give in to bloodlust, but he couldn’t have been more wrong.

“Stop saying ‘E’,” Techno chides. The sound of bubbling and a glorious smell accompany his low words. “You never let me make stew in peace.”

Tommy can’t imagine how years of combat and heralding rising empires would have imbued him with so many household skills. The last time he saw Techno try to cook was when he set Phil’s kitchen on fire when Tommy was eleven.

===

In the end, he gets too comfortable.

Technoblade leaves the house and Tommy is out of hiding almost before the door fully shuts behind him. His returns have sporadic timing, which had Tommy glancing out the window every few minutes in the beginning, but now he just does whatever he wants and listens for the sounds of armor clanking with Techno’s approach.

There are several close calls, but it’s not in Tommy’s nature to be overly cautious for an extended amount of time, and it’s been almost two weeks now.

Techno’s silly self-referencing conversations have the dual effect of lowering Tommy’s guard with their inanity and repeatedly reminding him that the man is not in full control of himself.

Sometimes he even feels the urge to reach out to him when it seems the Voices are being cruel and mocking, because it sounds painfully relatable to Tommy at this point, but he always holds himself back for fear of losing his final life to his brother.

Then, one day, Tommy hears the familiar sound of Ghostbur’s plaintive voice. Techno is shouting something at him, the walls shaking with how he sprints back and forth across the house to gather something.

Then he’s out the door and Tommy doesn’t hear anything for hours.

A blizzard starts and still there’s no sign of Techno’s return.

He’s not sure why he waits so long to ascend this time, but eventually he does. He eats a single bite out of each portion of leftovers in Techno’s cooling box. He drinks some of his wine and kind of hates it, but it makes him feel very grown.

He feels nervous about how long Techno’s taking to return. He steps outside when the sun is setting and sees many tracks in the snow, but struggles to remember what Phil told him about deciphering meaning from them.

He’s almost certain that there were more than two people. The horse was definitely involved at some point, and maybe some other animal. The tracks head off in the direction of the distant shore.

Tommy wrings his hands. He goes back inside and puts on one of Techno’s coats. It drags on the floor and that makes him angry, but he keeps wearing it.

For some reason he starts cleaning, but he’s not very good at it, so he mostly just relocates messes to different areas for a few hours.

He goes outside again, the bottom of the coat immediately getting soaked in the snow. It’s a new moon and the sky is black, and with the blizzard he can’t see more than two feet ahead of him. 

He circles the house aimlessly, looking for more signs of what happened even though the fresh snowfall has covered all of the tracks.

When he reaches the front door again, Technoblade is standing there in his full armored, blood-soaked glory, one hand on the handle of his pickaxe and the other on his horse’s lead. He’s panting and looks unbelievably angry.

Tommy freezes in place but it’s too late.

They lock eyes.


	2. Can't Fight Evil Without Pants

The first thing Technoblade notices-- because you never stop being an older brother-- is the fact that Tommy is practically drowning in his second-favorite coat, which is objectively hilarious.

The second thing he notices is that--

 _Tommy. Tommy! We_ knew _someone was stealing! He’s here! What’s wrong with him? Why is he at our house? Does he work with_ them? _The government. The_ enemy. _The_ \--

Tommy squeaks and somehow trips over himself standing still, falling into the snow and soaking Techno’s cloak. His eye twitches and Tommy jolts back up frantically.

“Uh, Uh-- ‘Ow do?” Tommy grins. He flinches severely when Techno grabs him by the front of the shirt, almost lifting him off the ground. “Oh-- okay! Okay!”

Techno hauls him into the living room, blood boiling as he considers that another of his family might be actively seeking his death. If kindly _Tubbo_ can call for his execution after all the memories they built together, Tommy will be no surprise.

He shoves him into a nearby chair, looming, and the thing is--

The thing is that Techno knows how frightening he is to look at. People see him and assume he’s going to hurt them, which comes in handy more often than not, but right now--

 _Stop!_ the Voices scream almost immediately. _Stop, Techno! You’re scaring him! You’re hurting him!_

They’re so loud that his head throbs, and he has to step away to make them stop, but he’s accomplished his desired effect.

All color has drained from Tommy’s face in sheer terror-- the effect even more stark with how gaunt he is. It’s almost disturbing to see passionate Tommy so pale and so quiet, but Techno supposes he makes a haunting image dripping blood onto the hardwood floor.

“H-How are you?” Tommy manages, and Techno really shouldn’t be surprised that he’s still capable of running his mouth.

“What are you doin’ in my house, Tommy?!?” he shouts roughly, vocal chords still shredded from yelling all day.

Tommy whimpers but then immediately yells-- “You’re a _bitch!_ ”

“Wha--” He’s cut off as Tommy topples the chair in an attempt to get away, bolting down the ladder. Techno chases him on sheer instinct.

“Stop stop _stop!_ ” Tommy screams frantically. “ _No-no-no-no-no!_ \--”

“Where are you _going?_ ”

“Everything’s fine, Everything’s fine-- _Go away!_ ”

He finds that a new basement has been added to his home. Without his _permission_ or _knowledge._

"What the fuck."

“Hey!-- Hey…?” Tommy tries to play it cool. “Technoblade, read the sign, man! Ha!”

It says ‘ **No Pussies Allowed!!!!!** ’.

HIs eye twitches again. _Someone is going to die tonight._ Another someone, anyway.

“How long has this been down here?!”

“You know, my other good friend, Dream--” Tommy begins rambling as Techno corners him again. “We were-- it was sort of a _love-hate relationship_ , you know, like-- like--”

Techno growls and he instantly shuts up. “Why are you under my _house_ , Tommy?” He glances around the pitiful space with a dawning realization. “This is all of my stuff! You’re just _robbing_ me!”

“No, I--” Tommy ducks his head and yells. “Get out of my room! _Get out!_ ”

“This is _my_ house!!” He drags a hand down his face and resists the urge to obliterate the child in front of him. “Tommy, I was just _executed_ today! They executed me, I don’t-- have _time_ for this!”

“Wot?” Tommy somehow looks more horrified with this news than anything else happening. “You lost a life? I thought…”

He gets an embarrassed look on his face but says it anyway, glancing away. “Technoblade never dies…”

Techno has a weird moment, because he’s simultaneously remembering Tommy chanting the same phrase when he was a devilish little blonde eight-year-old and the way the Voices murmur it in his head every time he survives another day, unconquerable.

“Look, just--” Tommy stutters. “Ring the bell, man, it’ll make you feel better.”

Techno glances at the bell in question, bolted into a poorly cut oak log of all things, and decides not to question it. “I didn’t actually die. I had a totem.”

Tommy’s eyebrows shoot up and he looks excited despite himself. “I thought those weren’t around these parts?”

“I went far away to get it.” His jaw clenches when he realizes why the walls look the way they do. “Did you take my gold.”

 _Blood for the Blood God,_ they whisper. He exhales deeply through his nose. _Blood for the Blood God… Blood. For. The_ \--

Tommy is saying something but Techno can’t be here right now, so he leaves, climbing the ladder with jerking motions.

===

Tommy knows when he’s fucked up. That’s one thing that people never understand about him-- the fact that he _recognizes_ when he’s causing irreparable damage.

His problem is that he can never think of another way. He looks back on all the terrible things and he can’t imagine what he could have done differently to get a better tomorrow. A universe where everyone he cares about doesn’t hate him.

He saw that look in Techno’s eyes, the moment before he left, and knew that it was his fault.

He sits in the mud and tries to consider what the right thing to say would have been. Certainly not calling him a bitch.

He feels his eyes begin to water pathetically. No, no. That was actually pretty funny. Classic Tommy.

He mastered the art of silent crying a while ago. He thinks he’s doing a pretty good job until Techno’s voice comes echoing down from above, causing him to freeze in place.

“You can stay tonight, Tommy. But tomorrow, we’re going to have a serious conversation.”

===

“You can either piss off and leave,” Techno states frankly over breakfast. “ _or_ , the two of us… Anarchy. We take our revenge… together.”

Tommy hadn’t even realized that was an option. “I, you— You’ve wronged me, Technoblade. You killed Tubbo.”

“Do you want your discs back or not?”

“I can get them back by myself!” He crosses his arms defensively. Techno doesn’t seem to be willing to hurt him for the simple act of arguing, but that doesn’t change the fact that Tommy is in an extremely dangerous position right now.

“Oh, sure-- You don’t even have your own _house!_ ” Techno snorts. “You’ve been livin’ in my _floorboards_ like a _raccoon._ ”

“There’s nothing wrong with being a raccoon, dickhead,” is the petulant reply.

“Why do you even care that I killed Tubbo?” Techno suddenly says, craning his neck down so Tommy is forced to make eye contact. “He exiled you. Do you think he cares?”

It feels like a spear’s been pushed through his heart. He can’t speak.

Techno’s voice gentles but he still looms. “I know a thing or two about putting your trust in other people and having them betray you, Tommy. They used me as a weapon and then tossed me aside. A little pressure from Dream? They _exile_ you. What’s the point of a government if it sells out its own citizens?”

Tommy picks at his toast and Techno leans back, crossing his arms.

“You wanna know what’s been driving you and Tubbo apart? It’s the government. If there was no government, you and Tubbo could be friends-- you could have your discs back! There’d be nothing for Dream to threaten.” He cocks his head, bares his tusks. “Join me. Let’s _destroy_ L’Manberg.”

Tommy eyes him, swallowing nervously. All he can see right now are fireworks-- all he can hear is Tubbo’s screams. “Do you-- you promise we won’t have to be... pals?”

Something indecipherable flashes across Techno’s face, there one moment and gone the next. Tommy could almost swear he looked hurt, if the idea weren’t so bizarre.

“We don’t have to be pals, _believe_ me. In fact, we--” He stands up and Tommy cowers in his chair. “It’s not even an option, okay, so just give up on that.”

“But you’ll help me get my discs.”

“And you’ll help me destroy Manberg.”

“I didn’t agree to that.” He can’t. No matter what happens.

Techno huffs. “Tell you what-- we’ll get some _minor_ terrorism done, okay, from which the government can… We’ll get the details down as we go.”

“Well, I…” Tommy grins shakily. “...am a _big_ fan of minor terrorism.”

===

“You smell like shit.”

Tommy blinks rapidly like he’s shocked, even though he’s well aware of how three months of homelessness has treated him. “Bit rude, innit?”

Techno glares up at him from the book he’s reading, chained spectacles balanced on his snout. Tommy fights the un-manly urge to giggle. “If you’re going to spend your time out here instead of burrowed away in your mud hole, you need to clean up. You know I have a sensitive nose.”

“ _Awww_ , poor Techno’s _baby_ nose…!” Techno stands and Tommy immediately jolts to his feet. “Okay, okay! Where’s…”

Techno firmly takes him by the elbow and brings him up to his bedroom, where Tommy’s never really gone because it’s weird and also because there were no chests to rifle through in there.

There are furs hanging on the walls. The bed has a fucking _pink canopy_. There’s also a wooden tub in the corner.

“Soap’s on the endtable.” Techno releases him and turns to leave. “You can use my towel, I guess. I’ll just wash it afterwards.”

“Wait--” Tommy spins around but he’s already gone. He winces and tugs at his shirt. “Yeah, this is definitely weird.”

He touches the enchantment rune on the side of the tub and it begins to slowly fill with hot water. “Get this from the villagers?” he mutters curiously.

He decides to wait until it’s finished filling up before getting in. A part of him really doesn’t want to take his clothes off in Techno’s house, but he figures he’s going to get kicked out if he doesn’t bathe, so…

The water is almost scalding. He sinks in with a hiss and feels all the cuts and bruises he’s been ignoring put in their objections. “Bloody hell…”

At Logstedshire there was a river nearby that he would occasionally walk into to rinse off, but it was so freezing cold that he tried to avoid it for as long as possible.

This-- a hot bath is something he hadn’t even realized he wanted, not when all he was thinking about was how hungry and lonely he was, day in and day out…

He grabs the soap, ignoring the fact that he’s crying again like a baby. Techno probably doesn’t want him in his room for very long, so he has to be quick about this.

===

“Thank God you-- hold up.” Techno frowns and Tommy stands there awkwardly, shivering and dripping water. “Did you just put your dirty clothes back on? That’s-- fucking gross, Tommy.”

“I don’t have any other ones, you prick,” he bites back, grimacing.

Oh. Techno feels kinda bad about that one.

“I can resize some of mine, if you want.” He digs through the bag of sewing supplies next to his chair and pulls out a needle and thread.

Tommy looks completely thrown by this and it’s kind of offensive. Techno frowns at him until he speaks.

“What does stitching have to do with terrorism?”

At first, Techno has no idea how to parse that question. Then he snorts and rolls his eyes. Leave it to Tommy to be shocked that he has hobbies other than lopping off heads.

“Ya can’t go out and fight evil without pants, dumbass.”


End file.
